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mp3 players

David hears that he can turn an old cell phone into an MP3 player. Can he use a cheap prepaid cellular smartphone? Leo says that will work, but he wants to be sure it has enough storage. Most cheap smartphones don't' have more than 16GB. Getting one that has a microSD card slot would also work because he can put one in with all his music and use it that way. Leo also recommends using doubleTwist to play music. From the chatroom - ZTE phones are $8 at Best Buy!

FIIO is one of the last "iPod-ish" companies, and they make great mp3 players.

Charles' CD player is dying, so he's thinking of getting an MP3 player. Leo says that physical media is fading away and going digital is a good idea. He can take all the CDs he owns and "rip" them into an mp3 format. But it's likely that everything he owns and wants to listen to are available now using music streaming services like Spotify, Pandora, or Apple Music. They're around $10 a month or $15 for a family plan.

Jim just got a new Honda and he can't get his MP3 player to pair with it via Bluetooth. Leo says that if he can connect his phone via Bluetooth, then it supports Honda's version of the A2DP standard. The question is, does that MP3 player support it? It may be that Honda doesn't properly implement A2DP. Most cars will pair with an A2DP standard, and if his MP3 player supports it, then it should. But since that car has Apple CarPlay, he can always use his phone to stream music.

Pete is looking for an MP3 player because he doesn't know how to copy music to his Android phone. Leo says not many mp3 players are made these days. He can copy files on an Android phone by simply dragging and dropping when his phone is in transfer mode. It's called MTP mode. The phone will show up as a drive on his desktop and then he can drag and drop into the music folder of the phone.

Martin wants to know if he can still buy MP3 players. He wants to bring his music with him and doesn't want to stream it. He also doesn't have a lot of storage on his phone. Leo says that there are still some available, though the category is shrinking. SanDisk has the Clip, which has 16GB of space. It's around $30 and is very simple. Search Amazon and he'll find a lot of them, mostly Chinese made.

Rene has an old video iPod and she has a lot of music on it. How can she play it on her stereo? Leo says she'll need a minijack to RCA jack adapter. She may also get a 30 pin dock that can work with it as well. More modern devices use wireless, but since her old iPod doesn't support that, she's stuck with doing it the old fashioned way.

At 7 years old, Rene may want to be sure to back that music up, because sooner or later it will die. So she should make sure she backs it up.

Rob finally gave up on iTunes and started using Media Monkey. It's fine except he's having issues with using it with his old iPod. What stand alone MP3 player could Rob get that would work better? Leo says that MP3 players have mostly gone away as mobile phones have taken it over. An old Android phone that he doesn't use anymore would do the trick.

David has an old iPod running iOS 6. Will there be a new iPod coming soon? Leo does think so. He thinks that Apple is pretty much ending development of the iPod since so many are buying iPhones now.

David could still buy an iPhone and just not activate it. Leo suggests going to Gazelle and buying a used, unactivated iPhone 5 or 5S. Then he'll be able to run iOS 8, just like an iPod. Leo says another option is T-Mobile's unlimited texting and data plan that costs $30 a month and has about 100 minutes of talk time.

Steve wants an inexpensive MP3 player just for listening to podcasts. Leo recommends the Sandisk Sansa. It's a small, clip-on mp3 that comes in 2, 4, and 8GB options and would be ideal for this. Of course, most people just use iPods and iPhones because it's easier. However, if Steve can sync his podcasts with the computer, this will do just fine.

Leo says they're not doomed just yet, but that seems to be the trend. People interested in buying music players tend to go with smartphones and double up so they don't have to carry multiple devices. There's always a need for music players for people working out and hiking, though.